Gold Hills Nut Company

Facilities | Stages of Processing | Directions

Blanching

Blanching involves the removal of the almond skin through a process of scalding. Once the skin has been boiled off, the almond is sent to the dryer to extract excess moisture. Gold Hills' blancher was shipped directly from Spain. It is the latest from the Maseto Blanching line with 3,000 lbs. per hour capacity. It has both electric sorters and hand-sorting tables, which are all in line to ensure quality assurance.

Roasting

The Gold Hills' roaster, a Proctor & Schwartz Dry Roaster, has the capability to either dry or roast almonds. Roasted almonds are then diced, sliced, slivered, or sold whole.

Cutting

Gold Hills slices, slivers and splits natural, blanched, and roasted almonds. The cutting line at Gold Hills is a Maseto line. It can slice, sliver and split almonds and contains an in-line roaster. There is a hand-sorting line ahead and a metal detector at the end of the actual cutting line for quality assurance purposes. This cutter can process 20,000 to 30,000 lbs. of product per day.

Dicing

Gold Hills dices natural, blanched and roasted almonds. Our dicer can produce sizes ranging from 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch, and allows three sizes of diced product to be run at one time. The dicer contains a pre-hand-sorting table and a post-dicer metal detector for quality assurance purposes. Diced product can be packed directly off the line into either 12.5 kg or 25 lb. boxes.

Flour Mill

Gold Hills grinds natural, blanched and roasted almonds. Almond meal is also known as almond flour. The difference between the mill line and the dicing line is that the dicer uses blades to create the diced product, while the mill line uses stones to grind the product into meal or flour.

Packaging/Storage

Gold Hills Nut Company deals in wholesale purchases only. Our product is sold in 5 lb., 25 lb. and 50 lb. cartons and in 2200 lb. fiber bins. Vacuum packing is also available. Products prepared for shipment are stored in our 24,000 square foot cold storage warehouse.

Shipping

Gold Hills shipping and receiving docks provide full service to truckers. Our Weighmaster provides weight certificates. Our loading dock handles full truck and sea container loading, floor loaded or on pallets or slip-sheets.